CONCLUSION The prime directive for any criminal investigation is that every death must be considered a homicide until

the facts prove otherwise. To this we must now add a new sub-directive for the criminal investigation of homicidal poisoning: Every death with no visible signs of trauma must be considered a poisoning until the facts prove otherwise. The investigative key is to put all the clues together, and where they overlap, one should be able to match the most probable offender. The bottom line is that if the investigator does not consider poisoning they will never detect it.